The Influence Of Empathy On The Emotional Exhaustion Of Kindergarten Teachers:A Moderated Mediation Model

In order to explore the mechanism of negative effects of preschool teachers’ empathy and provide constructive ideas for alleviating emotional burnout of preschool teachers,this study is based on the model of empathic stress fatigue and the theory of resource conservation,and adopts the research method of questionnaire survey and interview.The empathic scale,emotional labor scale,emotional exhaustion scale and perceptive social support scale were introduced to investigate 221 preschool teachers in depth.The collected data were analyzed by SPSS22.0,Process and AMOS24.0.To explore the mediating and moderating roles of emotional labor and perceived social support in the relationship between empathy and emotional burnout.This paper draws the following conclusions:(1)The four variables of empathy,emotional labor,emotional exhaustion and perceived social support of preschool teachers have certain differences in demographic variables.From the perspective of different class types,the level of emotional exhaustion of preschool teachers in nurseries or small classes is the highest,while the difference of other groups is not significant.The level of empathy of kindergarten teachers in the first class was the highest,while the level of empathy in the small class was slightly higher than that in the middle class.From the perspective of marital status,the emotional exhaustion level of unmarried preschool teachers is higher than that of married preschool teachers,and the level of understanding social support of married preschool teachers is higher than that of unmarried preschool teachers.From the perspective of educational background,the level of emotional exhaustion of preschool teachers with bachelor’s degree or above is higher than that of preschool teachers with junior college degree or below.(2)There is a significant correlation between empathy,emotional labor,emotional exhaustion and perceived social support among preschool teachers.Empathy has significant positive correlation with emotional exhaustion,three dimensions of emotional labor,and perceived social support.There was a significant negative correlation between perceived social support and emotional exhaustion.(3)Preschool teachers’ empathy can significantly predict the level of individual emotional exhaustion.(4)The empathy of preschool teachers can influence emotional exhaustion through the mediating role of deep acting.The higher the level of empathy,the more the deep acting strategies are used,and the more serious the emotional exhaustion is.(5)Preschool teachers’ empathy can negatively predict emotional burnout through the masking effect of natural expression.The more individuals use natural expression strategies,the less impact empathy has on emotional burnout.(6)Understanding social support can mediate the relationship between empathy,deep acting and emotional burnout.Specifically,for individuals with higher perceived social support,deep acting had no significant positive predictive effect on emotional burnout,whereas deep acting had a significant positive predictive effect on emotional burnout.(7)Understanding social support can mediate the relationship between empathy,natural expression and emotional exhaustion in preschool teachers.Specifically,individuals with higher perceived social support had a significant negative predictor of emotional exhaustion from natural expression,whereas the negative predictor of emotional exhaustion from natural expression was not significant from natural expression.